I was wearing my third favorite shirt. My first two favorites I had, of course, worn previously on our first two outings. My date was passionately describing her career and regaling me with stories from work. She is a veterinarian, I’m an animal lover, and we were bonding.

Then she took a bite of her burger. I had so far avoided mentioning a thought that had been bubbling up. But as our connection deepened, I felt comfortable asking: “I don’t mean this to be rude. But, I’m curious, do you ever think about working so hard everyday to save animals and then, well, eating animals for dinner?”

Immediate vibe kill. “What? That’s totally different” she scoffed, “I’m treating people’s pets, they’re not meant to be eaten.”

But why?

The American Veterinary Medical Association, supported by overwhelming scientific evidence, finds that many animal species have sophisticated thoughts, emotions, relationships, and, most importantly, the capacity to suffer.

Almost anyone who has bonded with a dog or cat, or seen one endure pain or abuse, knows that instinctively. And if you haven’t bonded with animals, or simply don’t like them, thats OK. There are lots of humans I dont like. But its still not cool to torture and kill them for food.

Yet thats what were doing to billions of animals. Pigs, for example, like dogs, are smart, playful, affectionate and can make great companions. They test as well or better than dogs on cognition tests and can be taught to fetch, sit and jump. And pigs are social animals who enjoy snuggling after a long day, flopping over for belly rubs, and who are famous for rushing to embrace their human and porcine companions.

So humor me, for the next two paragraphs, as I describe just a few “standard industry practices” for pigs, substituting the words “dog” and “puppy” for “pig” and “piglet” to illustrate my point.

When dogs are born, if they are deemed too small or sick to be profitable, a common way to slaughter them is by smashing their heads into concrete, a practice called “puppy thumping.” A male puppy that avoids thumping will almost certainly be castrated without anesthesia by a farmhand, because vets and anesthesia would add “unnecessary” cost. Dogs of both genders will have their tails cut off without anesthesia, because their extreme confinement drives them to violent behaviors like tail-biting, something that’s almost nonexistent under normal conditions.

Many mother dogs are confined to cages not much bigger than their bodies (gestation crates), without enough space to turn around for nearly their whole lives. They are forced to live and sleep in their own feces for lack of space, all the while forcibly impregnated and giving birth over and over (efficiency!). When they are too sick to continue breeding, or if for whatever reason the economics of keeping them alive no longer pencil out, they are slaughtered (more efficiency!).

It would be illegal to do this to a dog or cat in all 50 states, yet it’s standard procedure for pigs. All for bacon, a Group 1 carcinogen as classified by the World Health Organization.

Make no mistake, what I described for pigs is the tip of the iceberg. There is not enough room in this publication to describe the myriad horrors that billions of pigs, cows, chickens and turkeys endure as a matter of standard practice.

This holiday season, dogs and cats will be part of our celebrations. They may even get gifts. Pigs and turkeys will get served for dinner. More than that, they will be tormented for the privilege to end up on our plates. Their miserable existence is so hidden from view that most of us won’t think twice about it. Heck, veterinary doctors dedicating their lives to animal welfare may not think twice.

So I ask you, the reader, the follow-up question I didn’t dare ask on my third date with the veterinarian: How can we justify loving our pet animals while condemning other animals to torment and slaughter?

Freeman is a volunteer with Mercy for Animals and The Humane Society. He lives in Los Angeles.